Method for production of hydrocarbons from hydrates

• Main Author: McGuire, Patrick L.
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/864830; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/864830

A method of recovering natural gas entrapped in frozen subsurface gas hydrate formations in arctic regions. A hot supersaturated solution of CaCl.sub.2 or CaBr.sub.2, or a mixture thereof, is pumped under pressure down a wellbore and into a subsurface hydrate formation so as to hydrostatically fracture the formation. The CaCl.sub.2 /CaBr.sub.2 solution dissolves the solid hydrates and thereby releases the gas entrapped therein. Additionally, the solution contains a polymeric viscosifier, which operates to maintain in suspension finely divided crystalline CaCl.sub.2 /CaBr.sub.2 that precipitates from the supersaturated solution as it is cooled during injection into the formation.